Of course, appointing a federal-state royal commission would be difficult to gain consensus from all eight state and territory governments and the myriad of professional and expert bodies involved in the pandemic concerning terms of reference, membership, resourcing, processes, and timeframes.
Then there is the issue about what to do with inquiry recommendations. Royal commissions are notorious for probing into unexpected areas and producing embarrassing (and costly) proposals regardless of how governments seek to control their outcomes by narrow terms of reference, specially selected members and tight reporting timeframes.
Surprisingly, the federal opposition has not been demanding an inquiry - probably fearful of what it might expose about the Morrison government. It means there has been little political pressure on the Albanese government. Their attention, too, has been elsewhere.
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Just to clarify royal commissions are appointed by executive government under legislation which gives them coercive powers of investigation to call witnesses, procure files and require witnesses to answer questions even if self-incriminatory.
Since 1901 there have been 139 federal royal commissions and numerous joint federal-state ones.
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